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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the author
- Reviews
Uniquely positioned to connect library users to the information they seek, and thus to the wider world, library staff who serve on the front lines of reference have both the power and responsibility to position the library as an institution that remains relevant and responsive. This collection takes a critical look at the overarching trends that affect current library policy and practice regarding the process of delivering information services, and how factors such as public policy, economics, and popular culture will continue to affect those trends in the future. Library leaders and visionaries from across the spectrum of institutions address such topics as
- The history of reference librarianship and how it relates to the current landscape
- Privacy, censorship, and reference ethics
- The effects of the "born digital" library user on the purpose and function of reference
- Strategic challenges for reference in the coming decade
- A reference forecast for 2025
Placing these issues in historical and cultural context, this book offers practical solutions for new paradigms of reference service for all users.
IntroductionReferencing the Future, by Katie Elson Anderson and Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic Part I: Understanding Reference Chapter 1: A History of Reference, by Julie M. Still Chapter 2: Terrorism, Privacy, and Porn: Reference Ethics in the Twenty-First Century, by Zara Wilkinson and Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic Chapter 3: The Real Reference Revolution: The Digital Library User, by Susan J. Beck Part II: Reference 2.0 Chapter 4: Reference Service Trends and Forecasts for Academic Librarianship, by Gary Golden Chapter 5: The State of Reference in School Libraries, by Lawrence V. Ghezzi and Walter Johnson Chapter 6: The Future of Public Library Reference, by Justin Hoenke Chapter 7: The Central Image: The Future of Reference in Academic Arts Libraries, by Sara Harrington Part III: "Dude, Where's My Jet-Pack?" Near Future of Reference Chapter 8: Whither Libraries? User-Driven Changes in the Future of Reference, by John Gibson Chapter 9: Future World: Strategic Challenges for Reference in the Coming Decade, by Stephen Abram CodaLibraryNext: Reference in 2052, by John Gibson About the Editors and ContributorsIndex
"The book offers an array of ideas about coming challenges and how reference librarians might respond ... Librarians at all types of libraries will find this book engaging for its discussion of previous and current challenges to reference. Its individual examinations of academic, public, school and special libraries make it a versatile and inclusive work. It also presents excellent new scholarship on the history of reference librarianship, an area in need of such contributions."
— Journal of Library Innovation
"The variety of intelligent opinions and practical experience shows that the editors selected their contributors well. Change is happening fast, and it behooves all of us to step back, as these essayists do, to survey where we are and how we can find ways, as we have always done, to help our customers to navigate the exploding universe of information in order to locate exactly what is needed and not just what Google hurls at them."
— Catholic Library World
"This is a perfect guide to the past, present, and near future of reference for library students or new librarians."
— Booklist